Speaker 1
Today's Capital markets segment is brought to you by alpaca. Alpaca just rang the opening bell at Kibo to celebrate the launch of live Trading for Kibo listed index options on its platform. Now, the milestone gives developers direct API access to cash subtle products like the S&P 500 index for broad market exposure and portfolio hedging, while joining us live from the Kibo trading floor to discuss market structure as well as AI agents and the future of brokerage infrastructure, is Tony Li, chief brokerage officer at alpaca.
Good morning Tony. Thank you so much for joining us. While you just rang the opening bell to celebrate bringing index options like S&P 500 index to our pockets trading API. So for our viewers out there, can you explain how these cash subtle products expand the hedging as well as volatility tools available to automated traders as well as developers out there?
Speaker 2
Yeah. Thank you. Thanks for having me again. I'm very excited to be here at the Cboe floor. It's actually my first time here. I was a long time options trader for many, many years before joining. Alpaca and I'm very excited to come full circle and bring index options to alpaca. And you know, historically I've always seen index options as being an institutional product.
But after five years, five years here at alpaca and I've seen the sophistication of our user base growing, particularly over the last 18 months with the usage of agents in AI, we just saw it being a natural fit to allow our users to use index options from for a variety of reasons, whether it be hedging or just putting on market views and really, really what what it comes down to is that it actually becomes a much cleaner way for our users to automate their strategies because, you know, the fact that they're European, the fact that they're cash settled, it makes their algorithms, you know, put on their strategies without having to worry about some of the aspects of physical delivery or early, early assignments.
Speaker 1
Yeah. And Tony, the Sibo launch fits into alpacas broader multi-asset expansion. So tell us why institutional clients are asking or demanding for a single infra layer, rather than managing separate brokerage rails for each asset class.
Speaker 2
Yeah. So, you know, alpaca wants to be the de facto programable brokerage infrastructure. And really, what that means is expanding our capabilities into as many asset classes and products as possible around the world, including index options. And so, as you see, an alpaca has been expanding into global markets.
It's, you know, there's a few new partnerships coming down the road on the event contract side. And this is what our users are asking for. They want one Programable API interface for themselves, for their algorithms or for their agents, and to be able to plug in to any asset class that allows them to run their strategy.
Speaker 1
Yeah. And Tony, I do want to get your take on agent AI. Of course. So we are seeing a surge in agent based market participation where AI agents execute trades. So how is the rise in agent trading accelerating API demand on your platform? And how are you prepping brokerage infrastructure for AI traders.
Speaker 2
Um, yeah. So, you know, alpaca has been, um, you know, riding, uh, this amazing wave of new entrants into the markets, which are agents. And on our platform alone, over the past 12 months, we've seen, um, a four x multiple of API calls on our platform, which is one of the major KPIs that we look at in terms of user engagement.
And over the past 18 months, it's been six x and the number of number of individual strategies that are being run on our platform have had very similar types of growth. Um, and really what it comes down to is people are accelerating their investment strategies. It used to take people several months to test out new investment thesis, and now they're basically running, um, you know, tens and dozens of agents to be able to test out multiple strategies and pick the ones that are that they feel suits their investment strategy the best.
Speaker 1
And finally, we have about 60s here. So given all of your experience, what does the modern brokerage look like in five years, especially as AI automation as well as multi-asset access becomes the industry standard.
Speaker 2
Um, you know, I think if we want to stick to the AI movement, the adjunctive movement, really we need to think about our customers being the agent themselves. Obviously, there needs to be boundaries and controls put in place by by the human owner. But, you know, when we think about product design, we want to think, what?
How does the agent want to interact with the brokerage firm? Right. How does it want to open an account, close an account, subscribe to market data, um, open up new accounts in different currencies. And so when we do product design now, we think about, okay, what is not just the user experience, what is the authentic experience.
And that really will become the future of brokerage and infrastructure.
Speaker 1
Well Tony, we will have to leave it there for today. Thank you so much for joining us. And congratulations on ringing the opening bell over at Cibo.
Speaker 2
Yeah. Thank you Remy.
